KIMBIA: Black Spotted Beaded Basket
Bring a unique splash of colour to the home with the KIMBIA planter. Woven from the blade of doum palm leaf and embellished with black glass beads, covering the basket like polka dots. These beautiful palm baskets make stylish flower pots & indoor planters.
These palm baskets are woven and embellished by hand by the Ariaal people of Ngurunit, Northern Kenya. Ariaal people belong in part to both the Samburu and Rendille tribes, and these baskets borrow from both cultures: the tight basketry techniques of the Rendille and the Samburu beading seen in tribal headwear and necklaces.
Milk is a way of life for this community and these woven baskets were traditionally created as buckets for collecting and storing camel’s milk in. But as plastic and metal jugs became cheaply available for milking, production of these baskets fell into decline. The revival of these palm leaf baskets came about in 2001 when they were reimagined as stunning woven planters for the home, with the addition of multi-coloured beading.
You help keep this precious art form alive when you purchase one of our palm leaf baskets. In buying from The Basket Room, you also become an important part of our journey in fair trade, supporting these skilled weavers through fair trade. Each basket comes with a thank you card from the Ngurunit Weavers Group, and you can meet the weavers HERE.
MATERIAL: Doum Palm Leaf
DIMENSIONS:
Mini: 8-9cm DIA x 8-9cm H
Small: 9-10cm DIA x 9-10cm H
Midi: 12-14cm DIA x 9-10cm H
Please note, as this is a handmade product, dimensions & colour may vary from those shown in the photographs.
FAIR TRADE & HANDMADE IN KENYA
Our journey into sustainable style began in Kenya, and the lion’s share of our woven baskets are Kenyan-made. Whilst every region of Kenya boasts its own rich natural bounty, each cooperative we partner with offers expertise in its own unique form of basketry. Weaving, dyeing and grass-rolling techniques differ across the regions as much as basket shapes, patterns and structures. These precious crafts are woven through the generations within families - passed along continuous thread from mother to daughter - protecting and preserving an art form as old as man.
Vast and colourful, vibrant and bursting with natural beauty and style, our fair trade baskets are as eclectic as their homeland and its people. From sisal grass to doum palm, banana leaf fibres to palm leaf, each weaving cooperative works with what is locally available and only what can be sustainably sourced, to produce beautiful baskets which are 100% Kenyan made, and ethically produced. All cow hide bag tags, straps, and basket labels are made from leather sourced as a by-product of the food industry. Natural dyes come from pounded roots, bark and vegetables of the region, whilst all synthetic dyes are sustainably sourced.
From the Kamba tribe to the camel-herding Ariaal pastoralists of Northern Kenya, you can read more about the lives of the Kenyan weavers we work with - and the wonderful baskets they produce - below.
